Four million not out! FOI reveals number of times cricket-mad civil servants logged on to sport website

Civil servants spent thousands of working hours visiting a cricket website over the summer when England’s Ashes battle with Australia was in full swing, new figures have revealed.

Mandarins at the Treasury, the Department of Health and the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) face accusations of wasting time after they logged on to cricket website espncricinfo.com at least four million times from January to August this year.

The five-Test Ashes series ran from July to the end of August. With the nation transfixed by the fluctuating fortunes of the teams, civil servants were able to keep track of all the twists and turns of the five match Test series from their desks.

I am a journalist and author. I am a staff writer at the UK edition of WIRED magazine and in 2015 my book, Freedom of Information: A Practical Guide for UK Journalists, was published. I created FOI Directory in 2012.